Illinois grapples with keeping guns from the mentally ill

Background checks can do little to stop violence, some experts say

Surveillance video shows Aaron Alexis with a shotgun during his shooting rampage this month at the Washington Navy Yard. His mental issues never led to criminal convictions or involuntary commitment, the only way his name could have been entered into a federal database. (FBI-supplied photo)

In the volatile debate over gun rights in Illinois, there is at least one prohibition that both sides of the issue claim they want: The dangerously mentally ill should not be allowed to own a firearm.

The shooting deaths of 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard this month by a man who had showed signs of psychosis has reignited a national debate over keeping firearms out of the hands of disturbed individuals. The rampage also has renewed calls for Congress to strengthen gun laws and tighten federal background checks.

In Illinois, lawmakers recently made it easier for authorities to weed out those with severe mental illness looking to buy a gun. The passage of a concealed carry law, which goes into effect in January, calls for a fortified electronic database that would require mental health practitioners statewide to report patients they believe pose "a clear and present danger" to themselves or others.

The new requirement makes Illinois one of a handfulof states whose law goes beyond federal standards.

Even so, the background checks will still do little to keep a senseless act of mass violence from happening in Illinois, say some experts. The combination of narrow reporting guidelines, privacy laws and loopholes that allow even the most unstable person to purchase a weapon online makes the effect on public safety minimal, say some.

"Given the leaks in the system, this does nothing to keep us any safer. It will only hurt people with mental illness and not do anything to protect us," said Mark Heyrman, a professor of mental health law at the University of Chicago who helped write the state's mental health code.

In Illinois, residents must be issued a Firearm Owner Identification card by the Illinois State Police to possess a firearm. State Police conduct criminal and mental health background checks on applicants, relying on information from electronic databases. The agency is required to report the data to the FBI's National Instant Crime Background System, a clearinghouse for records on people who may be disqualified from carrying firearms.

Previously, mental health providers were required to report only those who had been determined by the courts to be mentally defective or had been a patient in a psychiatric hospital within the past five years.

Under the new law, some mental health practitioners — including clinical psychologists, social workers, counselors, physicians and registered nurses —will be required to report patients they believe pose an imminent threat.

"I don't know any clinician who would not have someone who is violent or threatening hospitalized ... which is what makes this so silly," Heyrman said.

The new measurescertainly would not have flagged Aaron Alexis, the Navy Yard gunman, despite the fact that he told police he heard voices and had had brushes with the law, including misconduct with guns. His issues never led to criminal convictions or rose to the level of involuntary commitment, which would have brought him before a judge — the only way his name could be entered into a federal database.

It wouldn't have captured Adam Lanza, the Newtown shooter, either. He used his mother's Bushmaster rifle to murder 20 children and six staff members at an elementary school in December.

"Our current laws make what the public seems to be wishing for impossible … that information about everyone who seeks mental health treatment be accessible to anyone who sells guns," said Suzanne Andriukaitis, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Greater Chicago.

Still, Valinda Rowe, spokeswoman for IllinoisCarry, a gun advocacy group, said something needs to be done — especially given the nation's closure of public psychiatric hospitals, dismantling the system that once cared for the most severely ill.

"The law has changed so much in the last couple of decades, it's almost impossible to hospitalize someone for evaluation until they have already done something to hurt themselves or others," Rowe said. "It (used to be)too easy to hospitalize someone without consent. Now, the pendulum has swung so far the other way, we are left with mentally dangerous people on the street and their families can't do anything."

Meanwhile, she said, people need the right to carry firearms to protect themselves from dangerous individuals.

But with a quarter of Americans grappling with a mental health diagnosis, identifying who is likely to be a ticking time bomb is tricky business, clinicians say. They fear that policies based on broad clinical diagnoses instead of individual cases could deter people from seeking treatment.

At Thresholds, Chicago's largest provider of mental health services, psychiatrists use the FOID database to report names and identifying information when a patient's condition poses a risk. But they do not include medical information, per federal privacy laws, said Dr. Steve Weinstein, Thresholds' medical director.

Many advocates said a better solution is more readily accessible mental health services.

"There is no fail-safe method for predicting future violent behavior," Weinstein said. "As clinicians we utilize our professional training and expertise to make assessments that are as accurate as possible. However, it is impossible to create a comprehensive list of persons whose behavior may become violent someday, whether or not they are living with a mental illness."